1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a task execution apparatus, a task execution method, and a storage medium. In particular, the present invention relates to a task execution apparatus that can collectively execute a task on a plurality of devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various peripheral devices such as a computer and a printer are interconnected via a local area network (LAN) so that users can share assets of these devices. In such a network environment, a computer that is referred to as a server, is provided to collectively handle requests from host computers. In a case of a network including printers, a printer server is provided to collectively manage print requests from a plurality of host computers. The printer server is a computer that provides services shared by a plurality of printers to clients and includes a function to set or change a printer operation according to a request from a client.
Before the introduction of the printer server, a user could confirm an operation status of the printer only by referring to an operation panel of the printer. However, the printer which is shared by a plurality of users is not necessarily placed near a computer operated by the user. Further, the operation panel of the printer generally displays a limited amount of information or includes a small area for displaying information. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to correctly determine the status of the printer from the operation panel of the printer.
In order to solve such a problem, there is a network device management program that can monitor an operation of a device connected to a network (refer to Japanese patent Application Laid-Open NO. 2000-196665). An example of a network device management program is software that runs on a computer operated by a user. The software allows the user to confirm a state of an operation panel of a printer from the computer screen and notifies the user when there is a printer failure.
However, in such a case, the software needs to be installed in each computer. As a result, in a case where a network administrator collectively manages a plurality of user's computers, much time is taken to manage versions of software.
Consequently, a network device management program which can be installed in a world wide web (WWW) server to integrally manage devices that are located at remote work areas is discussed. The network device management program based on a WWW system can include functions that collectively acquires and transmits information from and to a plurality of devices managed by the network device management program. Further, if the network device management program having the function that can collectively transmit information to the plurality of devices fails to execute the process on some of devices, the network management program can re-execute the process at a given timing.
However, there are problems as will be described below in a case where a conventional network device management program re-executes the process that has failed.
The conventional network device management program can arbitrarily select a plurality of devices, so that the network device management program may transmit device-dependant information to devices. In such a case, the device which has received information that does not support the device always fails in re-executing the process.
Further, recent devices include a mode in which information can only be acquired (read) from the device and not transmitted to (written in) the device, in consideration of security (hereinafter referred to as a security mode). Consequently, since the information can be acquired from the device, the device makes a response when the network device management program searches for the device. However, the network device management program cannot transmit information to the device, so that re-execution of a transmission process to the device always fails.
Further, the conventional device management program can periodically execute the transmission process on the device according to a preset schedule. However, an execution result is different for each cycle in such a network device management program. Therefore, a re-execution process is not effective if information for the re-execution process is generated based on the execution result for each cycle.